Friday, November 05, 2004

Kerry's Best Moment

Clinton Advice Spurned. Looking for a way to pick up swing voters in the Red States, former President Bill Clinton, in a phone call with Kerry, urged the Senator to back local bans on gay marriage. Kerry respectfully listened, then told his aides, "I'm not going to ever do that." (Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan)

I suspect that gay-baiting would not only have failed to win over the anti-gay vote, but would also have significantly turned off support for Kerry among the decency-wing of his coalition.

Also, can we stop lionizing Clinton right now? This is a man who stopped campaigning in New Hampshire to conduct a photo-op execution of a retarded black inmate in order to secure the tough-on-crime vote. This is a man who promised gay voters that he would lift the ban on gays in the military, only to wilt under pressure from Colin Powell (who would never have been a general if not for forced integration of the army), and implement the hideous don't-ask-don't-tell policy. There is no one whose civil rights Clinton would not sell out for his own gain. Just keep that in mind every time you hear some bright Democratic young thing memorializing the Clinton presidency as a golden age.